More than 9,000 fans filled the Bob Devaney Sports Center on Saturday to watch No. 2 Nebraska volleyball sweep No. 6 Wisconsin on senior night.
The Huskers (28-1, 18-0 Big Ten) strung together extended serving runs early in each set to take down the Badgers 25-21, 25-22, 25-17. Official attendance was 9,009, the second-largest crowd ever at the Devaney Center, behind only last year’s five-set thriller against the Badgers (21-6, 15-3).
“We played our best when it mattered, and that’s what we challenged them with earlier today at practice, because that’s what we’re going to have to do against this Wisconsin team,” Coach John Cook said. “Our crowd was awesome tonight, and it just blew me away how many people stayed for senior night … After the first half of the first game, I’m thinking there’s no way we’re going to lose this thing with our crowd, the energy that was in there tonight and the energy our players had. It just felt like we knew it was going to be tough, but there was no way they were going to let it happen.”
This year’s meeting in Lincoln featured much less drama as Nebraska led most of the night. The Huskers held the Big Ten’s top offense to .169 hitting while out-digging the Badgers 54 to 37. Lexi Rodriguez led the way with a match-high 16 digs as 2023 National Player of the Year Sarah Franklin finished with 10 kills on .175 hitting.
“That’s what we do every day, so I’m not wowed by it,” Cook said of his back row’s performance. “That’s what we do. We’ve got three exceptional diggers and Harper [Murray] is a great digger and Bergen [Reilly] is a great digger. It’s hard to put the ball down on our side, and I think that’s what wears teams down.”
Merritt Beason posted a match-high 11 kills on .269 while Reilly dished out 36 assists. Nebraska hit .259 as a team.
Rebekah Allick recorded double-digit kills for the third time this season and first since the five-set win over Purdue on Oct. 11. She finished with 10 kills on .667 hitting, tying her season-high in efficiency to deliver a win for her seniors.
“They’re my why,” Allick said. “I made it very clear in the beginning of the season that I was very honored to have people that I could dive into and give myself to. I threw my hair up in the go-to buns, and I was just trying to play comfortable and just play with love. Obviously the night’s about them, but I’m grateful that worked out for me in this way. They’re my why, and so I was grateful that it showed tonight.”
Wisconsin struck first with a Franklin kill, but the Huskers responded with a 7-0 run featuring Rodriguez at the service line. The Huskers had three kills and three blocks during the run.
“With that high level of a team, even just a two-point lead is a game-changer,” Allick said. “So when you can secure something higher than that, I think it gives us a lot of wiggle room, and I think you could also see us loosen up more, try different things. This high level of volleyball, getting a huge lead, it’s a game-changer.”
They pushed the lead to seven before the Badgers began chipping away, trimming it to three several times, then to two another four times. However, Wisconsin missed a serve to give Nebraska set point and Taylor Landfair capitalized with a laser kill.
Allick led the way for Nebraska, terminating on six of her seven attacks.
“I think when you think about Bekka playing volleyball, the first thing that comes to my head is owning the net, and I think that’s exactly what you guys saw tonight, whether it’s blocking or an overpass or things like that,” Beason said. “Bekka is the most aggressive person in those situations that I know. She’s like, ‘I am killing this ball,’ or ‘I am stuffing this ball,’ and so I think you guys just got to see a little bit more of it. But she does that day in and day out.”
Beason added five kills while Reilly dished out 14 assists. Nebraska hit .217 and held Wisconsin to .182, recording 23 digs and holding Wisconsin to 12 kills.
The second set followed a similar script as Nebraska used a 6-0 run including an ace from Beason and three kills from Andi Jackson to take a 7-3 lead early.
“I tell myself I’m going to get an ace every time,” Beason said. “I think it just kind of helps stay aggressive. We all have our little individual routines that we do probably 1,000 times a week, to be honest. And so just staying in that routine and staying aggressive, we knew that serving was going to be a big part of this match, just like the last time that we played them was. They’re great attackers, and that’s kind of how you negate that and make it a little bit easier on blockers and defenders. So we knew that it was going to be really important that we stayed aggressive from the service line.”
Nebraska pushed the lead to five before Wisconsin trimmed it to one seven different times. The badgers had a chance to tie it up at 23-all, but an errant serve gave the Huskers set point. A tough serve from Murray induced an overpass and Landfair dropped it behind the defense for her second set-winning kill.
Nebraska out-hit Wisconsin .243 to .205. Murray came alive with five kills while Jackson and Landfair added four apiece.
Nebraska used another extended run — this time 7-0 with Murray serving — to take a 9-5 lead in set three, but this time the Badgers rallied all the way, tying the match at 14-14. Nebraska took a timeout to regroup, then Murray delivered a big kill to get the Huskers back on track.
That sparked an 8-2 Nebraska run as the Badgers began to unravel, handing Nebraska six of those points via various miscues. A service error gave Wisconsin a point, but the Huskers closed out the match with three straight kills, including one from Beason on match point.
Nebraska played its cleanest set of the match, hitting .360, while Wisconsin hit .114. Beason added four kills to her tally.
After the match, which completed the season sweep of the Badgers and eliminated them from contention for a Big Ten title, Nebraska honored its five seniors, with most of the crowd sticking around to send them off.
“This one probably meant a little bit more for each of us,” Beason said. “No one wanted to lose on senior night, so this one was definitely — there was a little more passion behind it tonight. But I think just one thing that this team has done a really good job of is not overcomplicating that it’s Wisconsin, and also holding Coach to that as well, because a lot of times when you go play your rival school, everyone freaks out and it’s like, ‘Oh gosh, we have to play perfect.’
“But that’s something that this team has really tapped into, and Coach and the rest of the staff have also tapped into, is truly treating it like it’s just another match in the Big Ten.”
Nebraska will close out the season on the road, visiting second-place Penn State on Friday with an opportunity to clinch the Big Ten title outright.
